The King of Props

When it comes to game mastering a horror setting campaign nothing makes or breaks the game quite like atmosphere. It is very difficult for your players to truly enjoy the horror aspect when the lights are bright, the tv is going in the next room, kids are running around being unruly.

Over coming these obstacles is fairly standard for many groups. Most players have day to day lives that don't exactly stop when they step into the fantasy realm. Simply dimming the lights, or maybe using things like candles or flashlights, and getting those kids a sitter will go a long way for running a perfect horror scenario. 

So now that the atmosphere has been turned towards the dark, and you start some preferably creepy background music, however your players still are not getting into the game as much as you want. 

Most people running a game don't consider going beyond the simple stuff. I for one was of the same mind, never going beyond the normal expectations of your players, and simply going for good content. This all changed one day when my co-author Cris starting bringing props into his Cthulhu madness. 

Cris's campaigns went from creepy to absolutely horrifying. One of the most recent delve's into Cris's madness came in the form of a small metal box. The story went that we found a box of a man and as Cris began to describe the box, low and behold he removed an actual box from his bag. The box, wrapped in "bloody" bandages, contained several artifacts including an actual map, scribbled all over in nonsense numbers, a cassette tape, and several other items. The tape had various number sequences overlapping, or coming from multiple sources. This was the precipice for the campaign which heavily involved cryptography, and running from cultists. 

The props Cris brings will draw any player into the campaign, provide for the players a tangible attachment to the fantasy that can easily push the horror element over the edge. As the horror element in the story increases the props add the realism that allows the player to understand and act more in line with how their character would act. This level of immersion really makes for a successful campaign. Unfortunately for Cris, as players we have all become to expect this level of immersion and probably wouldn't settle for anything less. 

So what's something extra you have seen from your game masters?  Leave a comment and let us know, and don't forget to subscribe and share us with your friends.